Sunday, July 02, 2017

My First Cards (for me) of 2017: Topps Archives Blaster

In June, I held my first group break of 2017 which allowed me to open up my first boxes of baseball cards from 2017. However, those don't really count as my boxes since the contents went out to all of the group break participants.

Instead, I can officially say that this blaster of 2017 Topps Archives (which I only bought because I enjoyed the two boxes we opened for the group break so much) is my first bit of baseball cards for 2017. Let's hope the blaster makes my $20 decision worthwhile!

As you can probably see from the photo, each blaster contains 7 packs plus two bonus Topps coins.

In an effort to not overload a single post with too many images, let's crack open the first three packs right now (plus the coins).

Baseball Coins:

C-4. Mookie Betts

C-10. Justin Verlander

Alright, I have to admit that these coins don't interest me in the slightest. If anyone wants them, let me know!

Pack 1:

25. David Dahl

70. Ichiro

115. Andy Pettitte

153. Frank Thomas

186. Monte Irvin

232. Lou Boudreau

281. Charlie Blackmon

Light blue parallel: 275. Alex Bregman #37/75

That's a great start to the blaster - a whole bunch of new base cards for my set plus the gorgeous blue parallel of Bregman. The light blue parallels are seeded 1:46 retail packs, so I definitely lucked out here with my one blaster (and the first pack opened no less)!

Pack 2:

34. Carl Yastrzemski

55. Fernando Valenzuela

136. Rob Manfred

173. Carlos Martinez

214. Seung-Hwan Oh

222. Matt Carpenter

234. Ian Kinsler

Bazooka 59B-13. Al Kaline

Well, for as great as the first pack was this pack was pretty much a dud (since I had the Tigers as one of my group break teams and we pulled that same Kaline insert during the break). However, I did need every single one of the base cards in that pack so no real complaints (especially since my goal is only to build the base set this year).

Pack 3:

10. Rio Ruiz

23. Honus Wagner

48. Jim Palmer

143. Willson Contreras

152. Victor Martintez

172. Rich Hill

268. Andrew McCutchen

294. Joey Votto

Somehow, in the two boxes of Archives that we opened, we didn't get that Votto. Well, now I have it!

I must say, that Bregman might be the highlight of the blaster so far - but for me I love that Votto. I also love that every single base card was new to my collection...that's a huge help in terms of getting closer to completing my set of Archives.